The Results Are In: Obama’a New York Date Cost Taxpayers $24,000

Jun 1, 2009 14 Comments ›› Erik Wong

I wonder if this was part of the stimulus package, or a totally different attempt at squandering federal funds? Unfortunately, we can no longer ask the Government about the stimulus, so we may never know.

Daily Mail UK: …that’s for three private jets, two helicopter rides, extra planes for security and closing roads for motorcade

It was a campaign pledge that Barack Obama didn’t dare break – a promise to take his wife out for dinner and a show once the election was over.

So on the weekend he booked a babysitter, asked Michelle to put on a little black dress and swept her off for a date.

The President picked up the tab for a meal at a low-key restaurant, Blue Hill, that specialises in locally grown dishes.

He had also paid £60 apiece for two tickets to Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, a play about a man coming to terms with the history of slavery.

There goes $170

As a little extra, he shelled out for two martinis to toast his first five months in the White House.

Overall, not too extravagant, and few would begrudge the hard-working couple such a treat.

Unfortunately, there were one or two other bills to settle at the end of the night.

The romantic jaunt is estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £45,000 in transport and security costs – because the date was in New York.

The President used three planes, one to carry the couple and two to ferry aides and reporters all the way from Washington.

The cost of each flight was thought to be nearly £15,000.

Here’s the whopper, that’s about $21,300 USD

The bill was pushed even higher with the use of two helicopters, one to take the Obamas to catch their plane in Washington and another to zip the party into Manhattan from JFK airport.

RAW: Obama steps off of private helicopter and into private jet.

Police also shut down New York streets for the motorcade to pass through so they could get to their date on time.

All the transport and security costs were picked up by the White House.

The White House spent your money on this, and you weren’t even invited.

But the President was unapologetic, saying: ‘I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished.’

In one concession to the tough economic climate, the couple flew on a smaller Gulfstream rather than the Boeing 747 customarily used as the presidential Air Force One.

However, Gail Gitcho, of the Republican National Committee, said Mr Obama could just as easily have taken his wife to see a show in Washington for a fraction of the cost.

‘If President Obama wants to go to the theatre, isn’t the presidential box at the Kennedy Centre good enough?’ she said.

The Republican Party slammed the President for taking an extravagant outing at a time when American car giant General Motors is set to plunge into bankruptcy.

‘As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theatre district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills,’ read the statement issued before the trip.

New York Mayor Bloomberg’s reaction to the night out.